


5 Times Peter Accidentally Took Something Of Tony’s To School

by TheSecretUchiha



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff, Gen, Humour, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, or attempts at it at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-04 05:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18337325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSecretUchiha/pseuds/TheSecretUchiha
Summary: ...and one time he didn't.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Breathe is being a bit difficult again, so I wrote this in like... 5 hours to try and get the writing flowing. I had the ideas for the 5 things ages ago but lost my note, so hope I didn't forget any good ones! I wrote this for the 5 things though, the +1 is mostly a formality but I think it's nice at least...  
> For once, this fic is complete before posting. I thought it'd be like 2k tops but it's almost 6k instead so I'll post two today, three tomorrow and then probably the +1 the following day.  
> Let me know what you think!
> 
> (I'll try to get the next Breathe up soon!!)

“Hey Penis, how did you…” The taunt trailed away into silence, drawing Peter’s attention when he would normally just ignore the other boy. Flash was looking at him, eyes narrowed, lips pursed and brow creased very slightly in confusion.

“What Flash?” Peter asked tiredly, wanting to move on. He’d barely made his first class after waking up late at the tower, he didn’t want to be late for another one.

Flash gave him another glance over, looking from his ratty shoes to his not-so-artfully-ripped jeans and then to the hoodie he’d tugged on quickly that morning. His gaze lingered there even as he spoke.

“Is that Armani?”

For several seconds the words didn’t compute. They jumbled around in Peter’s head, the order rearranging until his brain finally locked them in place and the meaning clicked.

“What? No!” Peter exclaimed vehemently.

Then, he paused.

A bubble of doubt filled his stomach.

“N-no,” he said again, trying to  sound as confident as he had before and failing, “Why would  _ I _ be wearing Armani? I mean, what even is an A-Armani? I don’t even know that word!”

He forced a laugh and could feel a shiver down his spine at the way it echoed painfully loud in his ears, despite the sounds of students pushing their way to class around him.

A hand touched his arm and Peter fought down the urge to instantly shrug it off the hoodie, glancing quickly to meet Ned’s wide-eyed look and the small shake of his head.

Flash just stared at them, expression dubious for several more long seconds before suddenly relaxing.

“Of course it isn’t,” he suddenly laughed, “Everyone knows you couldn’t afford it. Even from here I can tell it’s a cheap knock-off. Lame, Penis.” He punctuated the taunt with the rough shove of his shoulder into Peter’s as he passed.

Peter watched him go.

“Peter, what was-” Ned started but Peter cut him off.

“Shh,” he ordered, a hand blindly pressing over Ned’s mouth to silence him as he watched Flash finally turn around the corner into the next hallway.

“Peter, what are you-”

He trailed off, watching, perplexed, as Peter suddenly hurried out of the hoodie he’d been wearing that day, almost taking his t-shirt off at the same time in his haste.

“Peter,” Ned said warningly, beyond confused by his friend as Peter held the hoodie out in front of him with shaking hands and wide eyes.

“Ned,” he replied, voice quivering. “I think I  _ am _ wearing Armani…”

Ned’s eyes widened to match Peter’s, then narrowed slightly again. “I think you’d  _ know _ if you’d been buying Armani, Peter,” he pointed out with a slight hint of amusement.

Peter turned to him, hands finally pulling the hoodie in to hold carefully against his chest, cradled gently like a newborn baby.

“I was running late; it was just on the floor in the living room, I figured it must be mine and I’d just left it there earlier…”

Ned snorted, “Are you saying  _ May _ is wearing Armani?”

Peter shook his head slowly, “I… I stayed at the Tower last night…”

Finally, understanding dawned on Ned, his eyes widening and hand moving without conscious thought to touch the fabric held like porcelain in Peter’s grasp.

“Dude… did you steal Iron Man’s clothes?”

Peter’s mouth opened but no words came out, just a small choked noise that sounded like a kitten.

 

(“Dude, that hoodie’s like $800,” Ned whispered to him in the middle of chemistry class, quickly tucking his phone away again before the teacher spotted him. Peter pulled his lab coat even more tightly around him.”)


	2. Two

“Alright everyone, I hope you’ve finished your initial research for the project,” Dr Lawson called from the front of the class. “Please pass your files to the front and I’ll review them before your next class.”

Ned turned around in his seat, giving Peter’s file a slightly disbelieving look as Peter passed it to him. “Dude, how much research did you do?” he asked, pretending to struggle with the thick file.

“It was interesting,” Peter said slightly defensively. It really had been - the impacts of ocean drilling on marine bioacoustics had been great for a biology topic, perhaps because it was almost more physics than biology. He couldn’t help himself from gathering all the information he could, and Mr Stark had offered his own thoughts as they’d worked on their own projects side-by-side the night before.

“Alright, get on with thinking up solutions for your problems while I look through these,” Dr Lawson told them as she placed the large stack of files on her desk and started to ignore them in favour of their research, leaving them to their own devices.

The class worked mostly in silence; this research project was worth 40% of their grade for the year and everyone was taking it seriously - not even Flash was wasting time taunting him for once.

“Parker!” Dr Lawson called from the front of the room suddenly. Peter looked up, startled and met her narrowed gaze, his own face bewildered. “What is your topic?”

“Ugh, bioacoustics and marine drilling,” he told her, more of a question than a statement.

She nodded, as if to agree with him, “As I thought. Then could you explain to me why your research is full of engineering notes?”

She held up his file, the cover pulled back to show a detailed diagram of something unmistakably electronic when Peter knew  _ his _ first page had been a graph detailing the level of sound used by different marine organisms and their overlap with the various types of anthropogenic noise.

That was definitely not his first page.

The whole class turned to look at him, a few snickering at the look of horror on his face.

“I… I must have picked up the wrong file,” he said faintly, mind already having figured out exactly what she was holding instead of his work.

“So you picked up your aunt’s file on,” she glanced at the file and scowled at it, as if personally offended by the content, “reactor engineering?” 

“I stayed at a friend’s house last night,” he offered meekly in response to her skepticism that his aunt was making reports on such topics. “I must be one of his files, I’m sorry Dr Lawson.”

“The deadline is 3pm today, Parker,” she reminded him, “If I don’t have it by then that’s a detention and an automatic 5% off your grade for tardiness. Can you get it to me?”

Peter’s mouth dropped open slightly, his brain running overdrive - school let out at 2.30pm, he  _ could _ get to the Tower and back in half an hour if nothing went wrong… But if he had Tony’s work, Tony probably had his and he was stuck in a meeting with shareholders until 4pm…

“I - I can’t, I’m sorry Dr Lawson,” he stammered faintly and pointedly ignored Flash doing a poor impression of him at the other side of the class.

Dr Lawson looked disappointed. “Very well, an hour’s detention after school and you’d better work hard on the rest of your project to make up for losing points now.”

Peter nodded then ducked his head and got back to work as she picked up the next file to look through.

He kept his head down for the rest of the lesson.

 

By 2.53pm most of the school had emptied. The majority of the kids had gone home and the ones that hadn’t were hidden away in clubrooms or somewhere quiet to study by themselves. With his advanced hearing, Peter could pick up the steady beat of the basketball hitting the gym floor and the chatter of the robotics club that he used to be a part of. 

He’d been in detention hall for eight minutes and he was already bored. At least none of the Cap PSAs had been pulled out so far.

With a groan, Peter reached down into his backpack and rifled through to find something to  help him pass the time when…

“Peter Parker, report to the front office. Peter Parker to the office.”

Peter’s head, which had somehow ended up with his cheek planted on his desk, shot up in surprise. Coach Wilson nodded to the door and Peter was barely able to stop himself jumping the desks like Spider-Man would to get out as soon as possible.

'Had something happened? Was it May?' he wondered as he rushed through the empty corridors.

“I’m Peter,” he announced as he reached the front desk, “Is everything alright?”

The look the secretary gave him was hard to interpret but she gestured him through the office, towards the principal’s room, “You have a guest.”

Peter knocked once and opened the door before he even thought about it. If he had, he probably wouldn’t have been as surprised to see Tony sprawled comfortably in the armchair opposite Principal Morita who looked slightly out of his depths.

“Ah, Pete!” Tony called with a smile, standing up to meet him and ruffle his hair.

“Tony? What are you doing here?”

The man pulled back, leveling him with a playful glare, “I believe you have something of mine - something I kinda need for that big meeting I was telling you about…”

The blood drained from Peter’s face. “Oh shit, the file.”

“Yeah, that. And watch your language,” he chided off-handedly. “I assume you have it since I just showed my board members the most interesting facts about bioacoustics.”

He gestured to the desk where an almost-identical file to the one he’d tried to submit earlier in the day lay.

Peter’s heart jumped, eyes darting from the file to the clock on the wall.

2.57pm. He had time!

He didn’t even notice that he’d reached to grab it until Tony’s hand clasped around his wrist, halting him.

“Nuh uh uh, equivalent exchange. i give you your file, you give me mine,” he said teasingly and the relief that buoyed Peter suddenly turned to lead.

“You do  _ have _ my file, right?” Tony asked, reading Peter’s sudden hesitation too easily.

“Well…  _ I _ don’t have it but, if we go like,  _ right now _ , we can get it back from my biology teacher before she leaves…”

The hand grasping his wrist dropped in shock and Peter took the chance to grab the file and run back to the door before anyone could stop him.

“You gave my confidential plans for the newest arc reactors to your biology teacher?” Tony cried, quickly following behind him before Peter could disappear from sight.

Peter ignored him. The biology class was up two flights of stairs and at the other end of the building and he could feel the seconds ticking away.

The door came in sight just as the 3pm bell began to resound through the halls.

“I’ve got it,” he cried, shoulder slamming into the door frame to force him to a stop as the bell finished ringing. Dr Lawson startled, the tea in her hand spilling slightly over the edge of her cup as the other fumbled the pen in her hand.

“I’ve got it,” he said again, slightly less frantic, “Is that ok?”

Dr Lawson looked from his pleading face to the file in his hand, then up to the clock at the back of her room, the second hand mutinously ticking across the four.

“You know when you go to college they won’t care if you’re ten hours late or just ten seconds, right? A late assignment is a late assignment.”

Peter groaned, letting his head fall back against the door frame with a thud, “Yeah, I know,” he agreed reluctantly.

“Well, as long as you understand, I’ll give you a pass this once.”

Peter blinked then turned to look at her, disbelieving.

“Are you serious? Thank-”

A hand clasped down on his shoulder, Tony breathing slightly heavily and looking mildly irritated by the sudden chase through the school. “And if you have  _ my _ file too, I’d appreciate it.”

Dr Lawson’s jaw dropped, taken by surprise by the unexpected billionaire at her door.

 

(“Well,” Tony says once they’re both in Tony’s audi heading back to the tower, Tony with a file and Peter without. “I’ve been bugging the board members to go paperless for a while. I think they might be a bit more on board with it now…”)


	3. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, 350 kudos just from the first two chapters! Thanks so much guys!! Special thanks to everyone who commented too! <3 <3 <3

“Hey Pete, why didn’t you reply to my messages this morning?” Ned asked as they took their seats in second period. They were early, nobody else was there, not even the teacher.

“What messages? I didn’t get any this morning.”

Ned gave him a disbelieving look, then whipped his phone out of his pocket and quickly pulled up their chat thread.

_ ‘Lego tonight?’ _

_ ‘Bring snacks’ _

_ ‘And please bring Iron man too’ _

_ ‘Hellooooooo?’ _

Peter frowned and reached down into his bag to pull his own phone out, trying to ignore Ned’s awed sigh of envy. Tony had given him one of the new Starkphones, several weeks before the release, on the basis that Peter would tell him if he had any problems with it that might have been missed during production. So far there had been none, and Peter was beginning to wonder if Tony might have been slightly dishonest about his reasons.

He couldn’t really object now - the phone had been customised to him, and having Karen on hand whenever he needed her was something he didn’t know if he could live without anymore…

“Karen, why didn’t you give me Ned’s messages this morning?” he asked the phone.

There was a long pause, long enough for Peter to wonder if he  _ would _ have to report a problem to Tony before a female voice replied.

“I don’t appreciate being called by another woman’s name, Peter,” the AI replied curtly.

That... wasn’t Karen’s voice.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.?” he asked, voice a mix of shock and horror.

“Yes, Peter. You appear to have taken boss’s phone instead of your own from the breakfast counter this morning.”

“How does this keep happening to you?” Ned asked as Peter buried his face in his hands.

“Has Tony noticed?” Peter asked, ignoring Ned’s amusement at his plight.

Another pause.

“He has now that i have notified him of the problem,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. replied, sounding almost smarmy and reminding Peter of how glad he was that his Karen wasn’t anywhere near as scary.

“Fuck.”

The phone on the desk let out a single ring, announcing a phone call, before it connected automatically before Peter could react.

“Are you doing this on purpose, or is your life just this chaotic?” Tony asked, amused, from the other end of the call.

“I didn’t mean to,” Peter replied weakly.

“I’ll have a new case ready for your phone when you come over tonight so we don't get them mixed up again,” Tony informed him, then added, threateningly, “Don’t you dare drop mine and break it like you have all your previous phones.”

“I won’t, I promise! Thank you Tony,” he said and Tony gave a warm hum of acknowledgement before the call dropped.

Peter slammed his head onto the desk again, startling his classmates as they started to arrive in the room.

“Hey, it’s not all that bad,” Ned offered, patting Peter’s shoulder reassuringly.

“Why not?” Peter grumbled, too embarrassed to even look at his friend.

“Well, if you hadn’t accidentally taken Mr Stark’s phone,” Ned started, his voice surprisingly giddy, “you wouldn’t have learnt what his background is.”

Peter lifted his head, looking first at Ned then to the phone he pointed towards with a warm smile.

Peter blinked, taken aback by the photograph of him and Pepper curled up together on the couch, swaddled in blankets with a bowl of popcorn, laughing at whatever they’d been watching on the tv.

“You’re the background on Iron man’s phone,” Ned whispered reverently. “You’re as important to him as Miss Potts… Wow, he’s so whipped.”

Peter punched Ned in the shoulder, quickly hiding the phone in his pocket and his face in his arms to hide his pleased blush.

 

(“I swear, if he tries to give me a Hello Kitty case...” Peter muttered to himself as he washed his hands in the bathroom after lunch.

“Informing Mr Stark that you wish for a Hello Kitty case,” F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice announced from his bag, muffled but clear enough to understand.

“What?! F.R.I.D.A.Y. no!”)

 

((It wasn’t Hello Kitty themed despite the cute, pink ribbon Tony had pressed on it as a joke. He’d chosen a familiar red and blue design that Peter couldn’t object to.))


	4. Four

The classroom was completely silent. Even the clock that normally ticked loudly through the room was quiet during their test as Mr García was a firm believer in personal timekeeping and had removed the batteries before the test started.

Peter was glad he’d remembered the teacher’s asinine quirk and grabbed a watch on his way out of the tower that morning.

He quickly scribbled down the translation of the next sentence then glanced at his watch.

The screen had gone black so he gave it two quick taps with his other hand to turn it on again.

Ned coughed beside him, the sudden sound just loud enough to cover the whoosh of metal sliding against each other as the face of the watch suddenly unfolded out of itself, moving across the back of his hand and around it.

In a split second, he was sitting in his Spanish class, right hand loosely holding his pen and left encased in an iron man gauntlet.

His elbow hit the desk with a thump when he rushed to hide it from sight, drawing a few glances just as he tucked his hand under the desk.

“Are you alright, Mr Parker?” Mr García called from the front of the room, watching him suspiciously. 

Peter, keeping his arm tucked carefully under the table, chuckled, “Fine sir, just… needed to stretch.”

The man nodded, unconvinced, but turned back to his own papers.

Beside Peter, Ned gave him a questioning glance.

Peter looked back, eyes wide, as he pulled his left arm slightly into view, just enough to see the red and gold alloy gleam under the classroom’s artificial light.

Ned’s mouth fell open and his eyes widened to match Peter’s.

‘What are you doing?’ Ned mouthed to him. ‘Why do you have an iron hand?!’

“Boys! Eyes on your own papers!” Mr García snapped and the two of them ducked their heads quickly.

Peter could feel Ned’s eyes burning like lasers into the side of his face but he didn’t dare look around, not wanting to be called out again. He tucked his hand back under his desk, unable to resist clenching and opening his hand a few times, awed by the strange experience of the metal moving around his joints. Then he took a deep breath and focused back onto his test, trying to write his answers without his left hand holding the page steady.

He finished the test with fifteen minutes to spare but stayed sat in his seat instead of heading to the front to hand his paper in as he normally would.

Mr García gave him a suspicious look but didn’t call him on it.

“Ok, everyone, papers at the front and I’ll see you on Thursday,” he called as the bell rang and the class all started to leave.

Peter hung back, Ned hovering beside him with the least subtle expression of delight on his face as he waited for Peter to pull his hand out again.

“Mr Parker, your test please,” Mr García called when he was the only one still sitting.

“Ah, yeah, sure…” Peter mumbled, nervously, “Just… just a second!” He ducked under the desk, grabbed took his jumper off and carefully folded it over the gauntlet on his hand before reemerging and taking his paper to the front of the room.

“Here you are sir.”

Mr García took it without looking, staring instead into Peter’s eyes and then flicking his gaze towards Ned who was so excited he was almost bouncing by the door.

“One moment, before you leave,” he said just before Peter could turn and dart out the door. The teacher looked to Ned, nodding towards the door, “He’ll be out in a minute.”

Ned, the faithful friend he was, looked between them for a second before disappearing just outside the door.

“Is everything alright, Peter?” the teacher asked, voice surprisingly gentle. “You’ve been behaving slightly… strange today.”

Peter nodded, frantically. “I’m fine, I swear, just… uh…” he racked his brain for an excuse. “Just… hormones, you know.”

Well, that was an excuse. He flushed slightly, hearing Ned muffling laughter from the corridor.

Mr García's eyes widened and, for a split second, he glanced down. For a second Peter panicked, thinking that he’d spotted the distinctive red and gold gauntlet, before his face turned the same red as the iron man suit as he realised what he looked like.

Flushed.

Blaming hormones for his distraction.

Holding his sweater in front of his crotch.

“I mean-”

Mr García cut him off, “We’ve all been there Peter. It’s perfectly normal while your body is changing. Just try not to get too… distracted in class from now on, ok?”

Peter couldn’t bring himself to nod, he was too mortified to even react to Mr García’s attempts to sympathize with him but thankfully the man took pity on him.

“I’ll see you on Thursday then,” he said, the words clearly a sympathetic dismissal.

Peter fled the room as if the Vulture were back for revenge. He rushed past Ned, barreling into the toilets and slamming a stall closed behind him.

“P-Peter,” Ned gasped as he banged on the stall door, barely able to breathe around his laughter. “Are you ok?”

“Ned, let me die, please,” he whimpered pitifully through the door.

Whatever Ned tried to say next was indistinguishable through the laughter that lasted several minutes.

Peter fiddled desperately with the gauntlet, feeling the slightest amount of give around his palm and trying to wriggle his hand free.

“If I just…” 

A small bang resounded through the room, followed by a small trail of smoke trailing up out of the cubicle.

“Did you just…” Ned asked, laughter gone in a second.

Peter stared at the smoking crater in the floor beside his left foot, heart racing with how close the repulsor blast had been to his foot.

“I don’t think I can get it off, Ned,” he moaned pitifully, just as the bathroom door opened. Ned looked up to meet the boy’s horrified face as he looked back at him, then to the closed cubicle, then quickly left the room again, closing the door firmly behind him.

“Well, there’s definitely going to be some strange new rumours going around,” Ned said despairingly.

 

(Peter did get it off when he resigned himself to calling Tony for help. His hand was eventually freed at the expense of his self-esteem when Tony wasted the next ten minutes laughing raucously at him.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter that spawned the fic and I sadly didn't do it the justice I wanted... :(  
> I do really just love the idea of Peter, in the middle of class, freaking out with the gauntlet on...


	5. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super short chapter!

Peter looked down in surprise as his phone rang, smiling widely when he saw Tony’s name pop up on the screen.

“Hey Tony,” he answered brightly, surprised but pleased to get an unexpected call from his mentor.

“Pete,” Tony started slowly. “I know you’re excited that you passed your test, but when I said ‘take the car’ I meant the one Happy was in, not just whichever one you wanted.”

All the colour drained from Peter's face. “…oh. I… uh… I guess that also makes sense.”

“I did wonder why you seemed so shocked this morning,” Tony agreed tiredly and Peter could just imagine him massaging his brow. 

Peter could feel the sweat beading up across his own and the way Ned’s eyes seemed to be locked onto his face, pleading to know whatever was being said.

Peter gulped, trying to avoid his eyes and focusing completely on the call as Tony sighed, the sound almost completely masking the slight amusement behind it.

“You return my audi in perfect condition and I’ll  _ think _ about getting you your own.”

Peter’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened so far that he was sure his face was offering a fair replicate of his mask.

“Perfect condition, I promise Mr Stark,” he breathed when he finally picked his jaw back up off the floor.

“I’ll see you tonight, kiddo,” he finished fondly, hanging up before Peter could embarrass himself any further.

Ned pinned him with the most desperate look he’d ever seen, “What did Mr Stark want? Are you going out on...” he trailed off, looking around the empty corridor then leaning in closer to be safe before finishing in a whisper, “a mission?”

Peter chuckled awkwardly. His fingers pulling at his collar which suddenly felt much tighter than it had minutes before.

“He was just clearing up a small mix-up this morning,” Peter replied vaguely.

Ned still looked at him, waiting for more and Peter sighed.

“I might have… accidentally stolen Mr Stark’s car this morning,” he explained in a rush of words, peeking at Ned through the fingers he’d used to cover his eyes in shame.

He was pretty offended that Ned didn’t look all that shocked.

“Only you, Pete,” he said with a disbelieving shake of his head as he turned back to his locker and started pulling the afternoon’s textbooks out.

“I know,” Peter lamented, agreeing despite himself. “I’ve got to be really careful taking it back tonight otherwise he said he won’t buy me my own one.”

All the books in Ned’s arms tumbled to the floor with a resounding bang.

“He WHAT?”

 

(Tony did get him an audi. Eventually. Peter just had to convince May to agree first.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The +1 will be posted tomorrow!  
> Please let me know which of the 5 you liked most! ^_^


	6. +One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The time Tony surprised him.

“What makes a superhero?” Tony asked, looking around the hall of awed faces staring up at him once the excited chatter and applause died down.

Peter should have known. He  _ should have known _ .

He knew Pepper well enough now to know she wouldn’t have made Tony work through his graduation ceremony, especially not when Peter was valedictorian. It should have been even more obvious when Principal Morita announced there would be a special, surprise speaker. But none of it had clicked until Tony walked out onto the stage with his media smile and sent Peter a teasing wink, no doubt enjoying his gobsmacked expression over the ecstatic zeal of the rest of the graduating class.

“Is it being super strong? I wouldn’t say so, I’m definitely not. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I lift, but not like Cap does. Is it having the money to build yourself an advanced suit of armour to fly around the world and beat the bad guys in? Well, it worked for me, but Spider-Man started out in a onesie and that didn’t stop him.” Peter would have strangled him for reminding everyone of the outfit he wore before Tony took him on as a protege but forced himself to stay still and listen as Tony continued. “Is it having the brains to outwit your opponent? Again, I’m not saying it doesn’t help, an IQ of 270 certainly helped smooth my way to superherodom however my good friend Thor isn’t always the brightest star in the sky but I don’t think anyone would dare suggest he’s anything but a hero. So what is it? What is the common denominator that makes someone a superhero?

“Take a look at the people sitting around you. Do you know them? Can you remember the last conversation you had with them? What clubs were they in? What are their plans for the future? Look around and ask yourself - do you see any superheroes around you?”

He paused to let the question hang over them for a few moments, watching as they all glanced around themselves thoughtfully, gazes assessing, then moved on.

“The first time I put the iron man suit on I almost died when the suit stopped working mid-flight. I pulled through, then crashed straight through a grand piano and straight into a 1967 Shelby Cobra. Then one of my robots sprayed me with a fire-extinguisher. It wasn’t my most graceful moment and if you ask anyone that knows me they’ll be able to tell you at least fifty more stories of me fucking up like that off the top of their heads.”

Peter snickered at the nervous look Principal Morita shot Tony’s back when he dropped the f-word in the middle of his speech but nobody else seemed to care, too enraptured in Tony’s stories.

“On the other hand,” Tony continued, “Not so humble brag but I’ve also flown a nuke into a wormhole to stop Manhattan being blown to smithereens.”

The crowd, both students and parents, cheered and Peter was struck with the realisation that probably  _ none _ of them would be there if not for Tony’s actions.

“So is that what makes me a superhero? Is there a baseline - once you’ve saved this many people you’re allowed to call yourself a superhero? Sadly there isn’t exactly a superhero handbook to refer to.

“Life’s the same - there’s no guidebook, it’s full of surprises,” he said, both voice and smile fond, clearly remembering some of his own experiences in life. “Sometimes they’re small and good surprises, like getting a phone call from a kid stuck in a toilet stall because he accidentally took your iron man gauntlet to school with him and couldn’t get it off.” 

Two rows in front of Peter, Ned turned and gave him a pointed look that was so unsubtle that, if anyone other than Tony Stark had been demanding their attention, everyone would have questioned it. Peter pointedly looked away, back to Tony, already planning how to pay him back for bringing up some of Peter’s more embarrassing stories as the man continued, his mouth falling down into a frown, “Sometimes they life-changingly bad surprises, like being kidnapped by terrorists and kept in a cave for months. If you want my life advice, try to avoid the terrorists.”

The crowd gave a weak, uncertain chuckle.

“Life is going to throw problems at you,” Tony continued, unphased. “Not just the small ones like acne and flat tires and hangovers but big ones like discrimination, climate change and, unfortunately, possibly the odd alien invasion. But I look around this room, at each and every one of you, and I see people that are going to face these challenges and I’m not worried; I know what Midtown students can do.

“So, what  _ does _ make someone a superhero? If it’s not strength or brains or money, then what is it? I’ll tell you what someone taught me about superheroes - if you have the power to help other people then do it. It doesn’t matter what that power is, if it’s a big action or a small helping hand - if you can help people, that’s your responsibility. That’s all it takes to be a superhero, and I’d say those are pretty good words to live by.”

Something must have gotten into Peter’s eyes, they suddenly were starting to burn. 

“You’re about to step out into a much bigger world and it’s terrifying. There’s so many mistakes you could make but also so many good things waiting just around the corner from you so just enjoy each step you take - eat your fre sh a voca do, learn to pole dance, hitch hike across Europe. Do whatever makes you happiest and when you make a mistake, pick yourself straight back up again. When you see someone else struggling, pull them up beside you and move forward together. That’s what a superhero does.

“So I’ll ask you one more time; have a look around you. Look at the peers you’ve spent the last four years amongst and remember their faces. Because I guarantee you, no matter if the woman beside you wants to be a doctor or a politician, or the person in front of you wants to cure cancer or work as a stripper; if you use whatever knowledge, power or resources you have to help those in need, each and every one of you can be a superhero. I know some of you already are.”

Tony stepped back, kissing two fingers then holding them out in a salute to the students on their feet as they cheered and applauded, offering a few mock bows when they didn’t even begin to subside. Peter cheered just as loud as his peers, spotting Ned looking absolutely stupefied and even MJ getting into the spirit as Tony shook hands with Morita and took a place by his side as their principal called for silence one last time.

“Thank you, Mr Stark,” he said when the last student finally retook their seat. “And now, with all speeches said and done, it’s time for our final goodbye.”

The music started playing and Peter could feel his anticipation rising with each passing initial that walked across the stage, taking their diplomas, shaking hands with Principal Morita then, dazedly, with Tony. He cheered loudest for MJ and Ned, whom Tony seemed to take several seconds longer with, but found himself also cheering when his decathlon teammates accepted their diplomas, or a classmate he’d shared more than a few classes with… suddenly everyone seemed that much more important to him.

It all passed so fast until he heard his own name called.

“Peter Parker!”

He could hear Ned and MJ and May cheering for him already, before he even stepped out onto the stage.

He felt giddy. If he opened his mouth too wide he was sure all the butterflies in his stomach would burst out but he still managed a smile to Mrs Maddon as she handed him his diploma, tied with a red ribbon. His handshake with Principal Morita was the shakiest he’d ever given as the man smiled at him and whispered, “Well done Peter,” over the cacophony of the crowd.

Then he was facing Tony.

His smile trembled and, as ridiculous as it was, he could feel the tears starting to build up in his eyes.

He stuck his hand out, holding himself together with a single strand of web until Tony took the hand, grasping it tight for a second before tugging him in, wrapping both his arms around Peter’s shoulders in the best hug he remembered receiving in his life.

“Congratulations,” Tony whispered in his ear before pulling back, staring down at Peter with his own wobbly smile. “I’m so proud of you,” he said, slightly choked, then pressed a firm kiss onto his brow that made Peter chuckle.

“You can tell me how awesome I am later,” Peter joked, getting his own watery laugh in return.

Tony pressed one more firm kiss onto his brow then gently pushed him onwards, both of them quickly wiping their eyes as they went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly - writing a graduation speech is so freaking hard x_x And I'm not American so apologies if there are any mistakes with the graduation process...
> 
> Secondly, I have to apologise because I don't think this is the chapter you deserve after all your lovely and excited comments...  
> I wrote this fic for the five and just did this to fill the usual structure but it doesn't really fit the theme that well...  
> Originally it was going to be Tony turning up for a parent-teacher day or something, and as much as I love that, it's been done before. I don't think I've read any of Tony at graduation though that's not to say they don't exist.  
> I might write the cliched Tony surprise visits if anyone wants more but for now I hope you at least enjoyed this story as it is. ^_^  
> Thanks for reading <3


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